


Feeling Hot, Feeling Cold

by mawmawile



Series: Inktober 2019: The Year of the Miku [4]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Falling In Love, Gem Fusion, Insecurity, Nervousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 22:02:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20896805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mawmawile/pseuds/mawmawile
Summary: Sapphire has always felt cold—until she didn't (Inktober day 4: Freeze)





	Feeling Hot, Feeling Cold

From her blase facade, it was hard to tell that Sapphire was actually a nervous gem. She was important—her Diamond relied upon her to be perfect. If she slipped up even once… that wasn’t a future she wanted to even consider.

But Sapphire was often nervous. A voice inside her chastised that flaw. There was no reason to be nervous! What Sapphire saw in her visions were simply everyone else’s fault; besides, who would question her if she lied? A gem who  _ couldn’t _ see the future?

Yet the moments after the noble attendants left her and before she entered the chambers of her Diamond or another important gem were the worst. Sapphire was alone, thinking of how things could go wrong, even if she couldn’t see it. She was glad for the solitude. Before finding the courage to move forward and complete her duty, Sapphire found herself frozen to the ground.

That was little exaggeration. Ever since she was first made, Sapphire was able to manifest ice around her. It wasn’t something she had ever practiced, only appearing in moments of acute distress or worry. Thinking about it made her feel worse; Sapphires were oracles, not cryomancers. Her ice was a flaw, in the same vein that her nervousness was a flaw. The thought that she would be shattered if someone discovered her flaw was usually enough to shake the ice away from her dress and continue on.

The ice was growing again, now. In some far off place, Sapphire was aware of the outside world. Cold drops of water dripped onto her hair, the sky above darkening into an eerie grey, the Ruby guard trying to calm her down and oh! Lifting her up and out of the ice!

Sapphire was very much used to the cold. The streets of Homeworld were terribly sterile, its haughty nobles with selfish faces, its service gems looking little more than dead. Yet for the first time, Sapphire felt  _ warm _ . She felt warm in Ruby’s strong arms, in the shelter of a cave illuminated by firelight.

Sapphire saw something warm in Ruby’s round face, her honest eyes, her unafraid smile. Her kindness. Sapphire’s heart fluttered, and she drew her long bangs back to watch Ruby more closely.

They held their hands out, fingertips just barely touching. Ruby’s gem was on the left palm, Sapphire’s on the right. If they fused again—(the word held a strange, wonderful warmth)—their gems would be perfectly symmetrical.

They would be perfect. They would be warm.

And it would be a long time before Sapphire would feel cold again.


End file.
